Monthly Archives: September 2017

I admit I like garage sales. The treasures I find aren’t always things, but sometimes people. I met a woman whose fifth grade daughter is in a charter school. Along with a nurturing curriculum, the program includes a lot of parent participation. Sharing our parenting stories brought a commonality to the surface: “How do you parent, without losing yourself?” It’s not a simple answer, and it varies from individual to individual.

In the moment, I found myself reflecting on my over twenty years of parenting and saying, “If I could talk to my past self now, I would tell her to weave her passion into her parenting.” I shared how all these years later, I am weaving my writing into the teaching I do. Parenting and teaching have so much in common, including going beyond the expected duties and obligations. I put a lot of myself into my teaching, and that includes my extra time. One important way that I don’t lose myself is that I weave my writing into my teaching. I often write short stories and plays for the curriculum I am teaching. This sometimes includes addressing classroom dynamics in the form of social stories. In this way I have writing time while compiling stories for my next book or project. It’s a tapestry of mattering. The children matter, and so do I.

It makes me think of some questions to ask ourselves: What nurtures, nourishes and replenishes me? What matters to me? What makes me feel happy, and joyful? What makes me feel alive? What inspires me? What inspires my creativity? How can I include this in my busy life so that it can inspire the children I work with? How can I share more of who I am with the children in my life?

I hope this plants some seeds, and that you weave your own tapestry of parenting and teaching without losing “yourself”.